The present invention relates in general to medical bandages and casts, and in particular to a new and useful protective sleeve which is meant for engagement around a bandage or cast to provide a leakproof covering therefor.
When body parts, for example human arms or legs, are covered by bandages or casts, and in particular when these bandages or casts, such as for example plaster casts, cannot be taken off over a long period of time, there is a pressing need to cover these bandages or casts against the ingress of water, for example during showering. In many cases, patients have helped themselves by slipping sack-like synthetic material sleeves over the body parts and then fastened them at the body part, for example with the aid of strings, rubber rings or bands. Of course, such covers do not result in a water-tight closure, because the synthetic material films are folded together in every case and form fine channels through which water can penetrate, for example during showering.
If one takes a normal synthetic material fiber and utilizes an adhesive strip, such having become known under the designation HANSAPLAST, for the sealing of the film at the body part, then a relatively good sealing against the ingress of water is attained. The application of such a protective film or sleeve is however extraordinarily difficult, at least at the arms, because the protective sleeve must be held fast and the adhesive strip must be applied at the same time. This kind of adhesive strip is not intended for sealing and is therefore not water-tight. It adheres poorly to moist body places and is at individual body parts to be removed again only with discomfort, because the adhesive force is great.